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Bolivians for Constitutional Referendum

La Paz, Aug 29 (Prensa Latina) Bolivian social sectors, aboriginal leaders and lawmakers backed the call to a referendum on the new Political Constitution of the State (CPE, in Spanish), and condemned the opposition's protests.

Regarding the referendum, called by President Evo Morales on Thursday and scheduled for December 7, the chairman of the Confederation of Indigenous People from Western Bolivia (CIDOB), Adolfo Chavez, pointed out that it is the response to old demands from historically-marginalized sectors.

Chavez told Prensa Latina that the new Constitution would allow forging a new Bolivia, without exclusions.

The indigenous leader recalled that in several meetings with Morales, the members of the National Coordinator for Change, which groups several social organizations, had requested to end that process democratically at the polls.

He predicted new challenges, because as on previous moments of the ongoing democratic and cultural Revolution, the right wing will resist changes, because they affect its interests.

For his part, Deputy Cesar Navarro, leader of the bench of the governing Movement to Socialism (MAS) in the lower house, pointed out that the constitutional referendum will allow consolidating the State's structural transformation democratically.

Regarding the boycott announced by the prefects of the so-called Half Moon, he noted that the people, not those reactionary authorities, would vote for the country's future.

MAS Senator Antonio Peredo said the plebiscite is also a democratic response to the right wing's obstacles to dialogue and to its maneuvers in Congress to sabotage laws and agreements in that regard.

Opposition authorities in Santa Cruz, Beni, Pando, Tarija and Chuquisaca said they would not allow the constitutional referendum in their territories.

On the contrary, according to Tarija's prefect, Mario Cossio, they will continue to block roads and stage civic strikes to recover the oil tax revenues.